The guy should ask his boss for a raise, not the CEO. If his boss doesn't think he's worth $10K more, then he can take his talents elsewhere and work for someone who values his "guts".
Personally, the guy sounds like a left-wing idiot, and that alone would be grounds to can him.
Clearly one of his “talents” is his willingness to address issues of concern.
the way it works at this bank (also probably at most other similar big company) is that you’d never get more than 5% raises, it’s usually 0-2% depending on your rating that year (also, we’re not allow to give a 5 rating anymore unless we write a paper justifying why the said employee deserves it). and also your pay percentile have a certain influence; if you’re over a certain percentile, your raise will get less and less.
now, the funny thing is, if you do lateral position changes within the company every 2 years, you’re more than likely to get a 10% raise each time (you do have to ask for it when you apply).